Observation Session – 21 April 2012

Location: Arizona desert, USA

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Moderate turbulence, seeing ~6/10

Instruments:

  • 100mm apochromatic refractor
  • 80mm refractor
  • 7×50 binoculars

Targets:

  • Mars
  • Jupiter
  • Rigel
  • Perseus star field

Observation notes:

Transparency improved after midnight and allowed longer visual work on faint deep-sky targets.

The larger telescope resolved dense clusters cleanly, while the refractor was used for wider fields and comparison views.

Members present: Lucille Godefert, Ayoub Berrabeh, Maxime Dallois, Marc Lefèvre, Paul Garnier

Observation Session – 07 April 2012

Location: Cévennes National Park, France

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Moderate turbulence, seeing ~6/10

Instruments:

  • 150mm Newtonian telescope
  • 80mm refractor
  • 200mm Newtonian reflector

Targets:

  • M42 (Orion Nebula)
  • Saturn
  • Mars
  • NGC 7000 (North America Nebula)

Observation notes:

Transparency improved after midnight and allowed longer visual work on faint deep-sky targets.

The larger telescope resolved dense clusters cleanly, while the refractor was used for wider fields and comparison views.

Members present: Maxime Dallois, Lucille Godefert, Paul Garnier